Thursday, March 29, 2012

Waiting on Spring 8x10 oil on panel

Painted on a windy, warm day in Castle Rock. Spring has come a little early elsewhere, but the grass was just starting to peep up on this day. I have been painting thick as of late and it is turning out to be quite difficult to photograph the paintings. So much glare and shadows, but it looks really pretty good in person. This painting is for sale, as are all my other paintings on this blog. I always forget to mention that! It is currently hanging in the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. I hung another painting the same day and forgot to take a picture of it! When I get a picture of that one I will post it too. It's a nice view of downtown Georgetown, the same size as this one. Be sure to scroll down as I made several new posts below.﻿

This was a quick mountain study done from a photo I took near Frisco, Colorado a week or so ago. I was there to go skiing, but I saw this view from the side of the road and couldn't let it go by (again... I see this view every time we go skiing). As with all my other paintings this year, this is the dead palette plus Ultramarine Blue. I was in Georgetown at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery working with Cliff Austin and he pulled out a magazine that had a painting in it that was very similar to this one. He commented that we all make at least one of these compositions (usually a lot more than one) and I said I haven't done one. At the time I hadn't, and when I started this one I really didn't intend for it to come out this way. I think Cliff put a subliminal suggestion in my brain that day, and guess where it came out? So I guess I can say that I too have one of 'those' paintings now!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I have been painting away on schedule, just not posting. As you can see above, I am still painting with the dead palette. I added a Cadmium Yellow this time to bump up the greens in the middle of the canvas. This limited palette (Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Payne's Grey, Ultramarine Blue, and White) has been fantastic for winter and early spring. It makes it really easy to accurately match so many colors outside at this time of year, very quickly. I struggled for years trying to match certain colors that are a snap with this palette. Another nice bonus is that now that I can do them with this palette, I know how to make them with my regular palette. It will take a lot of grief away when I switch back the my regular palette.

Great News!

Three of my paintings were selected for the 2012 PAAC show in Taos, NM on May 5th. The show will be held at the Wilder Nightingale Gallery, right next to the old square in Taos. The paintings I have going are Sun and Snow, January Morning, and New Year's Day. These paintings can be found elsewhere on this blog. For more information about the show, click HERE . To see all the paintings in the show click HERE